The Seven Sins of Giles Coren

Restaurant Critic and columnist

Giles is a columnist and award-winning restaurant critic for The Times newspaper. He is author of the best-selling How To Eat Out, presenter of two hit BBC TV series, Back In Time For Dinnerand Amazing Hotels, and is editor-at-large of Esquire UK.

Giles Coren is the editor of new dining guide Truth, Love & Clean Cutlery: A Guide to the Truly Good Restaurants and Food Experiences of the UK, which aims to identify those restaurants and food experiences that go above and beyond great food and wine in the ethical and sustainable ways with which they run their business.R32;R32;

Truth, Love & Clean Cutlery is a worldwide project, with editions being published for the US, Australia, and a World edition. It shows that living sustainably is a choice that affects us all, and is a lifestyle increasingly being adopted across the globe.

Wrath - What makes you angry about the hospitality industry?

Doormen/receptionists whose first question is “have you got a reservation?” when it should be “good evening, sir”.

Greed - If all your food fantasies came true what would be on your Plate?

A big overcooked baked potato with the skin blackened and flakey, with about a pound of unsalted butter smashed into it and half a kilo of beluga. With a bottle of Dom to wash it down.

Sloth - What do you do to unwind?

Sleep. I sleep a lot. Eight hours a night and then an afternoon nap around 3pm

Pride - What are you most proud of?

Carving out a nice career that I can maintain on four mornings’ work a week and no more, which allows me to be a very present husband and father.

Lust - Is there anything that you are still lusting to achieve?

I never lusted to achieve anything. My lust was always just lust. But it usually went unrequited.

Envy - who are you most envious of?

Michael Atherton the former England cricket captain. He is a great writer – like me – but he can look back on a youth spent playing the greatest game in the world to the highest level with enormous bravery and intelligence. Whereas all I did was get drunk and write crappy feature articles.

Gluttony - have you ever over indulged?

Yes all the time. Obviously. But less so now as I like to be as slim as possible, so as to slow the ageing process, keep me pretty enough for television, and give me an outside shot of living long enough to see my grandchildren.

Seven Sins

We put the spotlight on the industry's most recognisable faces in our new interview segment "Seven Sins". If you want to know what inspires the industry's movers and shakers or what your favourite food loving celebrity likes to indulge in then you'll find it in their Seven Sins.